Sara Fieldston
I focus on 20th-century U.S. history with an emphasis on the history of women and gender. I am particularly interested in changing conceptions of childhood and the family during the decades after the Second World War. My dissertation, tentatively titled "Saving the World's Boys and Girls: American Efforts to Assist Children Overseas, 1945-1980s," will look at the history of American efforts to help children abroad, epitomized in the phenomenon of child sponsorship. Through the project, I am seeking to address larger questions regarding the international circulation of ideas regarding gender, the family, and child psychology; the development of transnational philanthropic networks; and Americans' changing understandings of their responsibilities to the world at large.
I am currently preparing for oral exams in the following fields: U.S. History, 1865-present; Comparative Histories of Women; and American Legal History, Reconstruction-present. My advisor is Joanne Meyerowitz.
Originally from New Jersey, I graduated from Barnard College in 2005. Please feel free to contact me with questions regarding graduate study at Yale.
